The Top 50 Card Drawing Cards

Ben BleiweissFriday, March 21, 2003

Welcome to the second in a series of my top fifty cards of all time list. Last time around we went through the Top 50 White Cards of all time. Now that I'm working for StarCityGames as their Magic Card manager, I've been immersed in a world of Magical cards 24-7. I eat Magic, dream Magic, and play Magic Online obsessively. Yes, I've finally lost all semblance of a life during my fourteen hour shifts. Luckily, I've invented hours number twenty-five through twenty-eight in order to bring you the top 50 Card Drawing Cards of all time list!

As with last time, we're going to need to establish some rules. Don't complain to me because you haven't read these rules, because you can't deny the fact that they are below.

This is my list. Everyone seemed to like my Top 50 White Cards list so much that all I'm allowed to write are lists now. Even lists of rules.

Cards are ranked based on their importance and power in tournament Constructed play. Sorry, still no consideration to Sealed, Draft, or casual this time around. If you think that Syphon Mind is the card-drawing Mecca, then you're playing with five too many opponents.

Rule number three has been deleted. It used to concern JMS. Now that there are twoMarks writing for the site, I don't know which one to tell you to email. Scratch that. Email them both.

If you don't like this list, feel free to post your own opinions on the message board. Please keep it clean; please keep it civil. Exceptions to this include any A-list Hollywood celebrities who might read my column. Give up the props to the Bleiweiss, Ms. Jennifer Garner!

Multicolored cards were not included, because all the multicolored card-drawing cards in Magic bite the big bullet. Maybe one day I'll make a list that includes a card with two separate colors of mana.

Some cards have had their good and bad formats. I've tried to take this into consideration. I realize that nobody has ever played Timetwister in any format than Type 1 — unless they've been damn dirty cheaters and slipped one past a twelve-year-old at Friday Night Magic. Shame on you, whoever you are.

Some cards on this list technically don't say “draw a card”. Well, we're operating on the general principle of getting cards from your library to your hand in a fashion which generates card advantage. I'll brook no arguments that Land Tax doesn't deserve to be on this list.

Each of the cards will be listed in descending order, from number eighty to number one. Ok, you were paying attention — it's really from number fifty on down. I bet you wouldn't be so smug if you'd put two counters on your Pursuit of Knowledge only to have it Disenchanted.

Key: T1 = Type 1 S = Standard Ext = Extended Block = Block Constructed Block? = Check out the coverage of Pro Tour - Venice at Sideboard.com (starting today!) to see if these are played in Onslaught Block Constructed! Lim = Donald Lim, much like all Limited formats, will not be included below.

50. Mystic Remora

(T1, Ext)

The first card on this list heralds from good old Type 1. Seems to be a trend, doesn't it? Affectionately known as “The Fish” due to its artwork, Mystic Remora thrived in an environment filled with Moxen and cheap non-creature spells (such as Ancestral Recall, Swords to Plowshares, and Demonic Tutor). While it wasn't the best against a creature based strategy, it usually was good enough to at least gain the caster back the one card spent casting the enchantment in the first place. The Remora was also used in Extended for a little while as a sideboard card against Pox decks.

49. Grafted Skullcap

(S)

Burning Bridges! Combined almost exclusively with Ensnaring Bridge, Grafted Skullcap provides a self-Howling Mine effect with a drawback — lose your hand at the end of each turn. While not great for a blue deck, this effect shines when combined with the aforementioned Bridge in red decks with few creatures — draw burn every turn, and keep your opponent from attacking you.

48. Standstill

(Ext, S, Block)

Standstill is to Ancestral Recall what Hesitation is to Counterspell. Sometimes you'll trigger it, sometimes your opponent will trigger it. Either way, somebody is drawing three cards. Great to play when you've got a clock on the table, but otherwise not the most thrilling of specimens. Most Psychatog and blue-green decks that started playing with Standstill ended up switching to Deep Analysis.

47. Infernal Contract

(S, Block)

Paying half your life might seem like a steep price, but what's half of zero? According to Wizards, half of zero is zero, and so was born the Prosperity/Cavaderous Bloom deck (or ProsBloom for short). This deck would cast Squandered Resources, sacrifice all lands to Natural Balance, then cast Cadaverous Bloom, and then pitch cards to generate mana and draw more cards. Infernal Contract cost one land and one card (pitching to the Bloom) to draw four more cards. Under the "old" rules, you did not die until the end of the current phase (regardless of your life total), so you could Contract all day long — even at zero life — and simply cast a game-ending Drain Life to decimate your opponent.

46. Careful Study

(Ext, S, Block)

Blue-green Madness deck packs cards such as Basking Rootwalla and Arrogant Wurm. While Wild Mongrel might be the primary engine for dropping an early Wurm, the best opening play possible for this deck would be first turn Careful Study, dropping two Basking Rootwallas into play. Theoretically this card can only bring card disadvantage (discard two cards plus the Careful Study itself to draw two cards), but with Madness this "disadvantage" never felt so good!

45. Skeletal Scrying

(S, Block)

While blue usually draws cards for a mana cost only, black ends up paying life for that privilege. Skeletal Scrying combines the black use of the graveyard with the Necropotence effect (paying one life to draw one card) to provide the cheapest X card-drawing spell this side of Prosperity.

44. Sindbad

(T1, S)

“OK,” I hear my audience saying, “Why is a marginal creature which hasn't seen play since Fourth Edition sitting on this list? How did it finish ahead of six other cards?” Well, I'm about to let you in on a dirty little secret of Magic's past: Psychic Sindbad. You see, wayyyyy back in the day, Magic sets were all printed on slightly different cardstock. For instance, if you held an Ice Age land next to an Unlimited land, you could clearly tell the difference between the two from the back of the card. This meant that some "innovative" (read: cheating) players got the idea of building decks that had all non-Ice Age cards with all Ice Age lands. Once Sindbad hit the board, they would immediately know when and when not to activate him to draw an Ice Age land. If you did this today you'd be disqualified for cheating, so remember to use your sleeves kids! Note that if everyone always played according to the current floor rules, Sindbad would not be on this list.

43. Wirewood Savage

(Ext, Block?)

Aluren decks never really gained mass acceptance until Wirewood Savage combined with… Cavern Harpy?! Give me a break! Barkhide Mauler is a Beast. Snarling Undorak is a Beast. Beasts of Bogardan is a Beast. Cavern Harpy is a freakin' Harpy! Nonetheless, you can't argue with drawing infinite cards! Just play an Aluren, slap down Wirewood Savage for free, and then repeatedly play Cavern Harpy. Since it can bounce itself each time, you net as many cards as you'd like to draw.

42. Bazaar of Baghdad

(T1)

Bazaar of Baghdad also seems to provide complete card disadvantage on the surface. Savvy players have combined it with Squee, Goblin Nabob; Nether Shadow; Ashen Ghoul; and Krovikan Horror to turn this graveyard-filler into a massive boon. All those cards you lost end up turning into free creatures turn after turn after turn.

41. Cephalid Coliseum

(Ext, S, Block)

While not usable before threshold is achieved, and quite painful until then, the Coliseum provides a quick and easy way to filter your hand. Again, it's not card advantage in and of itself (since you draw three, and then discard three + lose the Coliseum), but it combines famously with Deep Analysis and madness cards (such as Circular Logic), and its effect can't be counterspelled.

40. Disrupt

(T1, Ext, S)

No counterspell in all of Magic has added more insult to injury than Disrupt. It's bad enough that your non-creature non-artifact spells end up getting Force Spiked, but your opponent gets to draw a card as well! If more "cantrips" (cards that replace themselves) were costed this aggressively, more of them would have been on this list.

39. Attunement

(Ext, S)

You'll notice that there are a few cards on this list which net you fewer cards than you started with. Attunement fits this bill, but it combines with Replenish to bring all those discarded enchantments (you were discarding enchantments, right?) back into play in one fell swoop.

38. Prosperity

(S, Block)

While Infernal Contract fuelled the ProsBloom deck, Prosperity did all the dirty legwork. A player needs to do something with all the mana generated from the Bloom and from Squandered Resources. Prosperity allows him to turn each mana into two more mana (draw X off the Prosperity and then pitch each card to the Bloom for 2 each). This fuels a massive 20+ point Drain Life aimed directly at the opponent's noggin.

37. Frantic Search

(T1, Ext, S)

Frantic Search works fabulously with any deck which has lands which tap for more than one mana, including High Tide and Tolarian Academy decks. While you're losing a card, you're gaining card quality and a bajillion extra mana. Yes, a bajillion.

36. Meditate

(T1, Ext, S)

Losing a turn to draw cards might seem harsh, but drawing four cards at once at instant speed has never seemed so naughty! Used in ProsBloom, Dream Halls, and other combo decks, Meditate could safely be cast at the end of an opponent's turn (provided they had no imminent threats on the table), or be used to grab pieces for a combo deck.

35. Compulsion

(Ext, S, Block)

Much like Cephalid Coliseum above, Compulsion offers of the best "Jalum Tome" effects in the game of Magic. Jandor's Ring cost way too much to play, and Jalum Tome itself is usable only once per turn, but Compulsion can keep you cycling through your deck as long as you have 1U and a card to pitch away each time.

34. Curiosity

(Ext, S, Block)

The best card drawing creature enchantment in all of Magic, Curiosity seemed to consistently enchant various Merfolk. Most other cards of this nature require the creature to deal combat damage but Curiosity got rid of the combat part of this equation. Prodigal Sorcerers, Reckless Embermages and Suq'Ata Firewalkers could safely ping away at the opponent while providing their controllers with a constant stream of cards.

33. Probe

(S, Block)

Nobody played with Dream Cache. Even though it appeared in both Mirage and Tempest, it was completely disrespected. Then came Probe. Probe was used with some success in Invasion Block Constructed, but then came Psychatog. Suddenly, there was a natural-born blue-black deck which could utilize the kicker. In addition, putting three cards in your graveyard (two from the Probe plus the Probe itself) didn't seem like such a bad idea with a hungry 'Tog waiting in the wings!

32. Howling Mine

(T1, Ext, S)

If any one card in Magic is the poster-child for card drawing, it is Howling Mine. New players love it, veteran players try to break it, and it has been in the base set literally forever. Providing free card love for all, the Mine has been used in decks ranging from Prison (Icy Manipulator/Winter Orb lock) to Orim's Chant/lifegain. Mark Justice used Howling Mine as a centerpiece in his Stormbind deck to make the top eight of the first Pro Tour.

31. Horn of Greed

(Ext, S)

The engine in the now-famous TurboLand deck, Horn of Greed returns your one card investment in land into a one card return. Combined with Exploration or Fastbond, the Horn quickly becomes an engine from which you can draw three, four, five, or more cards a turn, at no cost.

30. Gaea's Blessing

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

Technically a cantrip, Gaea's Blessing puts your best cards back into your deck (or your opponent's cards into his deck), plus gives you a chance to draw them back. In addition, it shuffles your graveyard and library for free when milled by effects such as Oath of Druids.

29. Jayemdae Tome

(T1)

The original card-drawing machine. “The Deck” (the original deck which personified the card-advantage strategy) packed the Tome as a way to gain card advantage steadily throughout the game. While drawing one card for four mana might seem clunky by today's standards, rest assured this card saw a terrific amount of play during the early days of Magic.

28. Shadowmage Infiltrator

(Ext, S, Block)

"Jonny Magic" (named after its creator, Magic master Jon Finkel) takes Ophidian to a different level — fear. The Infiltrator has a few subtle disadvantages to his snake cousin: 1) You need to play two colors to play the Infiltrator, instead of one for Ophidian. 2) He requires that you deal combat damage instead of attacking unblocked. This allows commonly-played cards like Engineered Plague to shut him down entirely. 3) If you're playing those colors, Psychatog is better than Shadowmage Infiltrator. Back in the day, nothing was better than Ophidian.

26. Gush

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

Gush fits into a strange niche. Without the alternate casting cost, it's a very overpriced card drawer. With the alternate casting cost, it's a good way for a blue deck to set itself back permanently in the land race. However, decks such as Turboland, Psychatog, and Rising Waters have found ways to turn the returning two lands disadvantage into a pure advantage, making Gush a card which often gives you four-for-one instead of two-for-one. Currently combines with Berserk and Psychatog in Type 1 for absurd amounts of damage.

25. Argothian Enchantress

(T1, Ext, Block)

So let me get this straight: once I have this untargetable creature in play, I can draw a card each time I play any enchantment? This includes recurring enchantments such as Rancor, correct? And I can play Auratog, and give him +2/+2 each time I sacrifice Rancor, and then draw a card for each sacrifice by replaying Rancor for a single green mana? And I draw a card even if the enchantment is countered, correct? Sounds like a deck to me!

24. Wall of Blossoms

(Ext, S, Block)

The highest placing true cantrip on the list, Wall of Blossoms plays defense with the best of them, without costing you a single card. Essentially, for the price of 1G, you get a 0/4 Wall at no card cost. Combine two Walls with Recurring Nightmare, and suddenly you're drawing a card for every 2B you spend.

23. Accumulated Knowledge

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

Accumulated Knowledge is a tricky card. On one hand, your opponent might be playing them as well, making them a liability at worse, and a game of chicken at best. Even if they are not, there's no assurance you're going to draw more than one a game — unless you're playing with Intuition. These two cards have combined together to form a pretty decent card drawing engine which can fit into virtually any blue deck from Donate/Illusions to Psychatog.

22. Yavimaya Elder

(Ext, S, Block)

A mainstay of “The Rock” (a black-green deck that thrives off of card-advantage creatures), the Elder potentially nets you a four for one advantage: it can block and kill a creature, then sacrifice to draw a card plus two lands. Not bad for a three mana body!

21. Whispers of the Muse

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

A favorite in "Turbo Xerox" (a blue deck which used minimal land but a ton of cantrips to thin out the deck), Counter-Phoenix (Shard Phoenix + Forbid) and Tradewind-Awakening (put Awakening on the stack, tap all your lands for mana, untap all your lands), Whispers has what might seem like a hefty price to pay for one card — but you get to do it turn after turn after turn. Plus, you can burn through extra copies for a single blue mana.

20. Braingeyser

(T1)

Now we're getting into the heavy hitters. Braingeyser is the original “Draw X cards” card for players who, well, like to draw X cards. Fuelled by Mana Drains, the 'Geyser can, and has, reached ridiculous levels. To its detriment it's a sorcery, which places it further down this list than another “draw X cards” blue card-drawing card.

19. Deep Analysis

(Ext, S, Block)

Turn Inspiration into a sorcery, but give it the ability to come back for half the mana cost and 3 life, and you've got Deep Analysis. Between Psychatog, blue-green madness decks, Quiet Speculation, and a host of other discarding/bring directly to graveyard effects, the Analysis has quietly become the powerhouse card drawing card of the current Standard environment. It's only bested by…

18. Merfolk Looter

(Ext, S)

The little Merfolk who could. Consider the Looter a Compulsion that costs no mana to activate — a huge distinction. While a blue player would need to hold back mana in early turns to use Compulsion, there are no such restrictions on the Looter. Drop it on turn two, and watch the parade of Arrogant Wurms, Roar of the Wurms, Deep Analysis, Basking Rootwallas, Wonders, and other such nonsense begin. Also fuels the threshold deck which includes Nimble Mongoose, Mystic Enforcer, and Werebear.

17. Brainstorm

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

Originally named “the Poor Man's Ancestral,” Brainstorm has shed that stigma and come into its own as a top-notch card-drawing card in recent years. It can protect valuable cards from black discard, and can combine with library shuffling effects to improve your draw (such as Thawing Glaciers, fetch lands, or Rebel search).

16. Impulse

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

Casting Impulse feels like cheating. You get to look at the top four cards of your library… and then choose which card you want to keep, all for the low cost of two mana! Impulse gets you through your deck quickly, allows you to quickly search for an answer to an impending problem, and does it all so effectively that almost any blue deck capable of running Impulse in any given environment has done so without hesitation.

15. Ophidian

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

And here we come to the highest ranking creature on the list. As stated above, the Phid stands heads and shoulders above Shadowmage Infiltrator as far as power level. Monoblue decks ditched Jayemdae Tome completely once this bad boy came around, and started moving towards Man-o'-War and Boomerang-style board control to set up enough time for the Ophidian to give them a hand full of cards. From that point onward, the opponent was Ophidian locked, and it was Counterspell city until the cow came home.

14. Sylvan Library

(T1, Ext, S)

The highest placing green card on the list. Paying four life seems a bit high for a single card, but the Library allowed you to effectively see into your future by a full two turns. In addition, several other effects combined with the Library to make it truly ridiculous. Land Tax allowed you to see a full three new cards each turn. Abundance combined with the Library to allow you to draw three cards a turn — without paying the life! You see, you only lose the life if you actually draw the card and don't replace it. If you use a replacement effect which doesn't actually draw a card, you suffer no ill effects! Combine Sylvan Library with Words of War to bash your opponent for six damage a turn.

13. Time Spiral

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

Man, did Wizards ever underestimate the “free spell” mechanic. Time Spiral removes itself from the game, which does not allow you to infinitely recur drawing seven cards, as you would with Timetwister (see further down the list). However, it combined just fine with Tolarian Academy and High Tide to fuel combo decks which dominated their respective environments completely. Yeah, drawing seven cards for free (once you hit six mana) seems like a bargain to me as well.

12. Windfall

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

This card seems fair on the surface, but ends up being completely asymmetrical in practice. Many players found that with Mox Diamonds, Lotus Petals, and Lion's Eye Diamonds, they could dump their entire hand on turn one, then cast Windfall to draw a full hand of seven new cards before the opponent even got a first turn. Somehow, that doesn't seem fair.

11. Fact or Fiction

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

R&D created the divvy mechanic in Invasion (taken from the card Raging River from Alpha) as a skill tester for players. While the rest of the cards have slipped into oblivion (Stand or Fall, anyone?), Fact or Fiction has thrived the whole way through. The best card drawing card printed since Urza's Block, hands down, Fact or Fiction is at worst a five-card Impulse, and at the best as a three-card drawing machine. What's best, your opponent is the one who divides up the pile. Many a player has unwisely split a Fact or Fiction the wrong way, losing the game on the spot.

Oh, and did I mention that if you draw three cards, lose two cards, and have a Psychatog on the table, you've just grown your 'Tog by +6/+6 (two cards in graveyard + Fact or Fiction + 3 cards in hand -- discard the three cards to have six in the grave, remove all six to give another +3/+3)?

10. Memory Jar

(T1, S, Ext)

R&D's own Randy Buehler claimed that his Memory Jar deck could kill on the first turn a full 33% of the time. That's what happens when you combine Tinker (which could get out the Jar almost immediately) with Megrim (so that your opponent would take 14 damage from a single Jar discard, assuming they could not play any cards in time). Even worse than Time Spiral, the Jar required no activation cost once it was on the table. Perhaps if it cost five to cast and five to active it would have been fair, but at three to tutor (Tinker) and zero to activate, it was completely abusive.

9. Yawgmoth's Bargain

(T1, S, Block)

You'll notice that the Bargain doesn't show up in Extended. This is because Zvi Mowshowitz (who has broken more engine cards than any other player in Magic history) built a deck around the Bargain that was so degenerate it was preemptively banned in Extended! Many Bargain decks showed up in other formats. They mainly used Skirge Familiar with Soul Feasts to creature a near infinite card-drawing engine.

8. Wheel of Fortune

(T1)

The only and highest ranking red card on the list. Yeah, this card doesn't belong in red — but here it is, so live with it. Each player discards his hand, and draws a full new hand of seven cards, for only three mana. Sligh decks loved this one, as they could get a hand full of burn after unloading a handful of Goblins and more burn. The turn after a Wheel usually means a dozen or more points of damage for an unlucky opponent via Lightning Bolt, Goblin Grenade, Ball Lightning, Fireblast, Chain Lightning, and other cheap burn effects.

7. Stroke of Genius

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

The best blue X card-drawing card in Magic. The Stroke might cost one more mana than Braingeyser, but it has several advantages: It's an instant, it's more splashable, and it has better support cards. Many combo decks have used the Stroke as a kill card, including High Tide, Tolarian Academy, Power Artifact combo, and Aluren. Tinker decks and Wildfire decks (which rely on cards such as Voltaic Key and Grim Monolith) have fuelled huge Strokes that weren't intended solely as a kill condition in a combo deck.

6. Timetwister

(T1)

Wheel of Fortune with recursion. While both cards allow the player to draw seven cards, Timetwister puts your graveyard right back into your library, allowing you re-draw already cast powerhouses such as Time Walk, Black Lotus, and others. Plus, it doesn't remove itself from the game so you can get it back with Regrowth, Yawgmoth's Will, and other graveyard recursion cards (including Gaea's Blessing, further down on this list).

5. Land Tax

(T1, Ext, S)

The only and highest ranking white card on the list. I wrote a whole lot about Land Tax in my Top 50 White Cards article, so I'm not going to go on and on about it here. Suffice it to say, drawing four cards a turn (even if three of them are guaranteed to be basic lands) would be classified quite clearly under "broken."

4. Library of Alexandria

(T1)

The highest ranking land on the list. By today's standards it might seem a little slow and clunky, but it's a card drawing machine. Requiring no activation cost other than tap, the Library combines amazingly well with other card-drawing effects that put seven cards into your hand, including Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, and Time Spiral. You can use it turn after turn, plus it taps for a colorless mana to boot! What more could you ask for from a land? Tune in and find out two weeks from now on MagicTheGathering.com! (Ominous foreshadowing.)

3. Necropotence

(T1, Ext, S, Block)

The Skull. The highest ranking tourney-legal black card on the list (hint, hint). Quite arguably the most dominant black card of all time. Necropotence takes the simple equation of "one card = one life" and turns it on its head. Once you play Necropotence, the remaining cards you'll see the rest of the game depend wholly on your life total. That's why you use Drain Life, Corrupt, Soul Burn, and Zuran Orb to make sure you have plenty of cards to draw. Dark Ritual allows you to take advantage of drawing multiple cards a turn — back during the black summer of Magic, it wasn't unusual to see a player drawing 4-5 cards a turn every turn of the game using Necropotence to fuel their crazed game of "holy cow, is this for real?" No other card in Magic has allowed a player to draw so many cards turn after turn so cheaply.

2. Ancestral Recall

(T1)

One blue mana to draw three cards. Originally conceived as part of a cycle of boons (cards which give you three of something for one mana), Richard Garfield was convinced by friends that Ancestral Recall was too powerful to be a common. So while Giant Growth, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt, and Healing Salve slipped quietly into the common slot of Magic, Ancestral debuted as a rare. And you know what? The critics were right. Drawing three cards as an instant for a single blue mana is so ridiculous that nothing even remotely close to this card has been attempted again in Magic.

1. Contract from Below

(5 COLOR BABY!) *BANNED*

And the moment you've all been waiting for. What do you mean, you expected Ancestral Recall to finish first? You must not be reading the cards at all! For the small price of a single black mana plus an ante of an additional card, you get to draw a full hand of seven new cards. Not you and your opponent — just you! Back when people played for ante (and in current 5-Color Magic), this card alone would win game after game after game. How can you compete with a self-imposed Wheel of Fortune which costs a single, solitary mana? You can't. Thankfully, this card has been banned from all sanctioned tournaments due to its ante nature. But as anybody who has ever played against this card for ante can tell you, even if you ante up your Black Lotus to the Contract, you're still going to win the game based on the biggest card advantage the best card-advantage card in Magic can get you.

Deck Showcase

Below is a variety of decks from throughout time that draw lots of cards, showcasing many of the Top 50.